Pre-Sales: Is There a Demo that Shows Voice in Action?

[jdanniel]

Hello everyone.

I have a pre-sales question or two, if I may, please.
I?m not currently familiar with GPS systems, having never used one, but after having gotten horribly lost recently in an area with no cell phone reception, I decided I better look into one. TomTom came recommended to me.

My gut is telling me I?d probably use a unit that provides audio directions?voice. I?d probably also want a slightly larger screen, such as 5 inches.

I?m not sure what else I?d want or need. Honestly, I probably would not use a GPS often, but after the recent driving debacle, I?d probably be willing to invest the money just for the peace of mind and comfort.

So, my first question is: How should I go about deciding what I do (and don?t) need, when deciding which model to buy? How would you recommend I assess my needs?

Second question: Is it possible to view (or listen to) a demo that shows an example of voice directions in action? I?d like to know what the voice feature sounds like. Is that possible? If it is, where do I find such a demo.

Thank you very much for any assistance you care to give.
J. Danniel

 

[dhn]

I really don't know where there would be a voice demo. Can you visit a Best Buy or Fry's in your area to see?

At this point, I'd stay away from any 2X or Via models. Too many issues, both hardware and software. I'd be looking at something like a 540. If you want lifetime rds-tmc traffic, then get a T model which comes with a combo rds-tmc antenna/car charger. And a 540 has a 5" screen.

 

[Andy_P]

Route and voice demo....

If you can get your hands on a TomTom model in a shop, it's fairly easy to set up a route and then get the machine to run a demo of it eaxactly as it would look and sound in real life on the road.

It might be quicker to ask a salesman to demonstrate it if you can find one who knows what he is doing, but I'll try to give some instructions.
As is often the case, it's a lot quicker to do it than to write all the steps down!

On the main menu, there is an icon for "Navigate to..." Ignore that and find "Prepare route" - on older models this is on the second page of the menu.

You then get a screen asking where you want to depart from, and the quickest thing is to go forward to the second page and select "Point on map".

That gives you a map view where you scroll around with your finger and zoom in and out with the magnifying glass or zoom bar at the side. Poke your finger on a likely road and select "Done" - that will set your staring point.

It will then ask for a destination and you can go through the same steps to select another point on the map (zoom out if necessary, so you can select somewhere a few miles away from the start point.

It will now calculate the route (maybe asking you if you want the fastest or shortest etc.and a time for it to first) and as soon as it has finished, it will show you a small screen with a summary of it.

At the bottom of that screen will be a button called "Details" Tap that and one of the options on the next screen will be called "Show route demo"

Tap on that button and (depending on model it may ask what speed you want the demo to run at or just start straight away.

It will show you exactly what you will see while driving, and you will hear any voice intructions that would be said.

While the demo is running you can change to another voice using the normal settings menus,. Just tap the screen anywhere and answer "No" when it asks if you want to stop the route demo.

That sounds incredibly long-winded when it's written down, but to do it in real life only takes a few seconds when you know your way round the menus.

 

[Andy_P]

Alternatively, if you just want to watch and listen to some video clips, there are LOADS of clips of the devices in use on YouTube. (although if you search for TomTom voice, you get a lot of the silly comedy add-on voices demoed instead of the normal ones.

TomTom have their own official channel there with lots of videos of various models and aspect, like a demo of selecting different voices here: TomTom Basics: Voices (although you never get to hear one on that!)

There's a guided tour here of the Go1000 model which explains a lot of the various features found in the Go2000 model you get in the US too: TomTom - GO 1000 series Guided Tour
or here's one for th Via with a lot of voice recognition and control demoed TomTom VIA 1435 M in-car GPS video review

 

[jdanniel]

Thank you for the responses. I appreciate it. I do have one follow-up question, if I may:

Do all of the units support the ability to change voices? Or only some? If only some support changeable voices, then which models do?

Thank you again.

Jd

 

[Andy_P]

The situation is a bit fluid!

I don't know of any models where you cannot change the voice at all, as it's essential to be able to change voice to change the spoken language.

Now, there are two types of voice...
"REAL human" ones, which are very natural-sounding but which have to string the instructions together from about 60-70 pre-recorded phrases and words.

And "COMPUTER" ones, which use a text-to-speech system to generate the speech "on the fly".
Those sound less natural, but are able to speak the names of roads and towns (sometimes very badly!)

Some of the cheaper models do not support computer voices at all, but you usually got a choice of one male and one female voice in several different languages (and separate ones for American English,British English and Irish English etc.).
You can add lots of extra voices if you want as they are easily available from TomTom or on the web.

Models with Computer voices always had the same choice of real voices as well, and in addition a male and female computer voice for each language or country.

HOWEVER.... recent models seem to have gone a bit downhill. My Go950 didn't come with my favourite real, male voice. But it was easy to add it to the device myself.

And the most recent new-generation models, have only been coming with a single female computer voice, and you cannot add any new computer voices to them so far.

Hope that answers most of the question

 

[jdanniel]

All of the information helped, yes. Thank you.

I do have another question, but it doesn't have anything to do with voice, so I'll post it in a new thread. Thanks again. Jd